On Sunday morning Eastern US time, four astronauts will zoom into space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Commanding the spaceflight is Raja Chari, a United States Air Force colonel.

Raja Chari is in training to go to space in 2019. Vaihayasi Pande Daniel presents the story of his journey from Cedar Falls, Iowa, to NASA. A Rediff.com Exclusive!

Lt Col Raja "Grinder" Chari, 39 is in the batch of 2017.